Foster + Partners’ Applied Research + Development team has been working closely with City, University of London (City) and UCL’s PEARL Lab to develop VARID (Virtual and Augmented Reality for Inclusive Design). This is a design toolset that uses virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies to help architects, researchers and designers improve their understanding of how users with visual impairments experience the world around them.
Visual impairments such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide, and cases are set to double in the next 30 years, as our societies age. It is imperative that architects design inclusive spaces where anyone can feel comfortable living, working, and visiting.
VARID uses dynamic real-time image processing techniques to mimic a variety of vision loss symptoms, such as blurring, warping, or peripheral vision loss. Developed as a game-engine plugin, it is compatible with a range of virtual and augmented reality headsets, which are commercially available. VARID is data driven and capable of generating personalised simulations based on a particular set of clinical test results.
VARID also helps in all design stages to inform massing, choice of materials or selection of colours. Researchers at UCL and City have used VARID to test, extend and validate the toolset to improve their understanding of user behaviour and spatial experience and help designers create more inclusive environments.
The project was funded by an Epic Megagrant. VARID is freely available to download, use and extend on Github.
We would like to invite designers, researchers and any organisations with a passion for inclusivity within the built environment to reach out if they would like to collaborate on this open-source project.
Notes to editors:
- Foster + Partners’ Applied R+D team (Applied Research + Development) is an integrated multi-disciplinary team of architects and engineers, who are also expert programmers. Their expertise ranges from art, architecture, and computer science to landscape architecture, structural engineering and applied mathematics.
- UCL’s PEARL (Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory) is a unique facility to explore the ways in which people interact with their environment. It enables the detailed study of how people actually interact with the environment and each other, by enabling the testing of detailed differences in the environment – such as space, colour, lighting, sound – under controlled conditions, so that we can obtain rich data for use in the design of real urban systems.
- City, University of London’s Department of Optometry is one of the oldest optometric teaching schools in Europe. Its world-leading Applied Vision Research Centre is home to a multidisciplinary team of scientific and clinical staff, and it focuses on translating basic vision research into knowledge and technologies targeted at improving eye care worldwide.
For more information contact:
Foster + Partners
Katy Harris, Head of Communications
+44 20 7738 0455